The PENguin Blog

Too often I get to the end of a particularly challenging or satisfying restoration effort and find myself saying “gosh darn (well not exactly) I should have recorded that.” Well, this time I was doing the work for a friend and she reminded me. So here goes. The story begins at the recent Washington DC Supershow. It is one of the two biggest in the universe and that made this whole enterprise possible since I was able to put the pieces together on the spot rather than having to chase all over the internet and pray that it would all come together. It helped that I was dealing with friends. The pen under consideration is pretty uncommon. Any Pelikan lizard is to be valued, but the short captop models are even less common. As you can see here it came to me in pretty sad shape.  The binde was pretty much shot and the barrel broken in two and held together with tape. It was a cap. Fortunately that was in relatively good condition with only a hairline caplip crack ...

The original purpose of The PENguin Blog was to showcase newly arrived pens and then travel happened, specifically a semester abroad in the UK in 2009 and then it became a travel blog. It may be time to get back to basics, so let’s start with two entries. This, the first: The recent Washington DC Supershow really was a super show indeed, for me. Several of these have been sold but there are still some notable pens remaining: --> This first pen is really a custom. As far as we know Pelikan never offered a 100 with a lizard binde and a black cap. Now that that’s out of the way, what we have here is a custom barrel, a modified 101N binde and correct parts otherwise. If you are waiting for a true lizard or merely want a cool everyday user here it is. $495 Next is a blue 100. This is the real deal with authentic (rather than recent) Emege markings. The binde is about .5 mm short on this pen but it is otherwise a fine example. If perfect I would ask $1,50...

We left the Oregon Coast on Monday June 29, haeaded for Ashland, the Shakespeare Festival and triple digit temperatures. In ten years this is the hottest it ever has been for us. But that does not mitigate against our enjoyment of the plays, although the outdoor Elizabethan theater has been . . . hot. Those of you who have followed our travels have seen entries regarding our visits to Ashland over the past decade, so I’ll recount the week in sketch. Over six days, beginning Tuesday, June 30 and ending on the 5 th of July, we will have seen eight plays and wandered this town. We eat, watch plays, sleep and shop, maybe in that order. Usually we take a side trip of some sort, often a shopping expedition to Jamestown, Oregon, some times to Crater Lake. It varies. For the past two years we have been here for the 4 th of July and the City of Ashland’s parade, which draws from throughout Jackson County. So here are a few snaps of this year’s parade. A sunny last day...

We spent Sunday driving the Oregon coast from Brookings in the South to Pacific City. Along the way there were several stops, for Sharon it was a search for yarn for a crochet project. I was looking for scenic coastline and for tidepools, which obsess me whenever I am on the coast here. In Coos Bay, Bandon, Newport and Florence, Sharon had no luck with yarn, nor I with pens, but at Sunset Bay I got my scenery and tidepools. At this wooded cove we found scenery and . . . sea lions To get detail, I had to punch my 400mm lens out to 1600 digitally, thus the noise Then at Sunset Bay We found another lighthouse Point Arago and tidepools As one father warned his daughter just before she fell, the rocks were "slicker than snot."